Ten Things ...
... That Make It a SnarkyWench Story.
I saw this going around on the fantasy writers communities a couple of months ago. Several fan fic writers have done it, as well, and since bambu345 said she'd be able to do one for me (since she's my beta) I thought I'd do it and see if my ten things agree with her ten things.
( Take a Peek At My Trademark Traits )
I saw this going around on the fantasy writers communities a couple of months ago. Several fan fic writers have done it, as well, and since bambu345 said she'd be able to do one for me (since she's my beta) I thought I'd do it and see if my ten things agree with her ten things.
( Take a Peek At My Trademark Traits )
OMG! OMG, OMG, OMG! I have struggled with this concept for a very, very long time! That anything where the characters are even remotely happy is less legitimate than those gut-wrenching, thought-provokers that leave me miserable. Bambu almost has me convinced that its a shameful fallacy, but she definitely had her work cut out for her. (And no, I wasn't predisposed to write those literary works, therefore I felt that I wasn't a legitimate writer. Oh, the pitfalls of growing up in an academic community.)
I did a lot of first person in JAG, too. That particular fandom leant itself to that, and I indulged. It's my opinion that any writer who tackles first person needs to either have walked in their characters shoes or have some kind of similar experience from which to draw upon. That old life experience really comes into play if you want to be convincing. (Have you ever read a piece of erotica and you just know that whoever wrote it has never actually had sex themselves? Same thing.)
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I remember early on you dismissing yourself as "just a fluff writer" and I can't tell you how sad that made me feel, because I do love your stories. (And I came fresh from a fandom where words like "angst" and "fluff" would be seen as insults, not as genres you pick on an archive). Similarly, there's a disdain in modern literature for heroes, for sympathetic characters. I think it comes from a disdain for the popular--because people *want* heroes--they want characters they can root for--and they want happy endings for them.
Bambu almost has me convinced that its a shameful fallacy, but she definitely had her work cut out for her. (And no, I wasn't predisposed to write those literary works, therefore I felt that I wasn't a legitimate writer. Oh, the pitfalls of growing up in an academic community.)
And yet I know you love Austen. Who wrote only happy, romantic endings. Is she just fluff? Dickens often wrote happy endings too. Shakespeare wrote tragedy, yes, but also comedies (and there's a lot of humor in even his tragedies).
And sometimes the happier ending is the harder one. Someone pointed out to me that JKR was in a way cowardly by killing off Snape. Because it's so much easier to allow Harry to admire and respect him and forgive him if he's conveniently dead, rather than write them coming to terms with each other.
And yet I've seen authors like Jocelyn and Greengecko do exactly that, and much more convincingly than JKR wrote that arc. I think happy endings *can* be shallow and unsatisfying--but only if they're not earned.
Bambu almost has me convinced that its a shameful fallacy, but she definitely had her work cut out for her. (And no, I wasn't predisposed to write those literary works, therefore I felt that I wasn't a legitimate writer. Oh, the pitfalls of growing up in an academic community.)
You may be right--and I think that would follow for the first person pieces I was known for in Trek. It really is a POV I feel at home with. I know third person is considered more flexible so I try to keep to it. But last SSHG Exchange, when I felt stuck, I turned to first person, because I knew it could pull me along.
And btw, not to nag you because I know how that can sometimes be aggravating rather than helpful, but I just want you to know how much I've missed your voice in the ship, and I hope you're writing, and if you're not posting it's because you're writing that original romance that is going to put you among the ranks of published writers!
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